Cloud Hosting Terms to Know

Moving to the cloud means learning a whole new set of words. To help you sort and sift through the buzzwords and useful terms, we’ve compiled this list – take a look before you sign up for any cloud service!

Cloud App : a cloud app is a software application that is always located in the cloud. Some cloud apps that you might use everyday include Gmail and Dropbox.

Cloud Backup : cloud providers that offer cloud backup solutions let users store data in the cloud instead of on a physical computer. If you’re signing up for a cloud backup package with a cloud provider, you are storing your data in the cloud.

Private Cloud : private clouds are stored within an organization or business. Usually, these clouds are behind firewalls, but there are other forms of private clouds available. If you have sensitive data to store, a private cloud is where you want to look.

Multi-Tenant Cloud : a multi-tenant cloud is a public cloud that is being used by other people. If you don’t want to share a cloud, this isn’t the package option that you should choose.

Personal Cloud Storage : storing data in a personal cloud means having access to that cloud at all times. Personal cloud storage is the optimal thing to choose if you want to keep on top of what’s happening with your cloud. This differs from a private cloud (see above).

SaaS : ‘Software As A Service’ lets users access cloud software from a remote web-based service. It is far less expensive to access programs through SaaS than it is to purchase the same programs via licensing agreements. If you’re looking to keep costs down, a monthly SaaS fee is the way to go.

Vertical Cloud Computing : simply, a vertical cloud is a cloud solution offered to a particular vertical, or industry. This could also be called “specialized” or “industry-specific” cloud computing. If you need a unique cloud option, look for a company that does vertical cloud computing.

These are the most basic cloud computing terms to know, and once you investigate a bit, you’ll find that these terms aren’t as complex as they sound. Sure, ‘vertical cloud’ sounds like clouds stacked vertically, but it really just means working within a vertical – simple, right? So, why are cloud terms so complex?

Cloud Hosting Terms to Know: Getting to the Bottom of It

Terms typically start with people that work in a certain industry. Sales people, for example, have specific sales terms that are generally only understood within a sales context. The same goes for the cloud computing world. Companies like IBM create names and code names for projects and applications, and these words leak out into the general public. Before you know it, the same terms are plastered all over cloud sites.

Unfortunately, most cloud companies neglect to explain these terms to users. This leaves people feeling very confused. The thing to do if you face a term that you don’t know is to simply conduct a bit of research. Thankfully, Google exists. That means that you can look up almost anything you want to know. Not only can you look up terms, but also you should look up terms. Why? Because you will be signing that cloud contract.

Cloud Hosting Terms to Know: Cloud Contract Terms

If you’ve ever looked at the small print inside of a cloud contract, you’ve probably experienced a bit of head spinning. These contracts include lots of clauses and paragraphs and terms that most people don’t know. But, you can easily decipher most of these things just by taking the time to understand what each term means.

The definitions listed above will start you off on the right path, but you may come across a more specialized term that you don’t know and can’t figure out. When this happens, make sure to ask for clarification. Remember, you will be signing a cloud contract, so it’s really up to you to understand what you’re signing.

It’s also up to you to find the best cloud hosting provider you can. To do that, make sure to check out SiteGeek.com. This site lists all the best hosting providers, stats, and real reviews, so that you can find the cloud provider that works best for you.

Recommended Cloud Hosting Providers

Business Cloud Hosting Solutions

A multitude of servers connected through networks to create a cloud, which is dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources provided as a service over the Internet.

Flexible, Responsive and Scalable

As an economy grows, a cloud can increase storage, CPU and bandwidth capacity.

Data and resources shared among many servers, if one goes down, seamlessly, you can switch to another one.

During Traffic spikes, more cloud servers pop up to take the strain and afterward disappear again. Unless the entire system goes down, the website always finds another server to run on.

Cloud for Gaming Environments

Infinite games from classic to new stored depending on what you spend for space.

Cloud Server equipped to handle a huge amount of data transfer.

Benefits to Customer

Additional technical support

Physical storage is no longer needed. Thus access to data is available all times.

Powerful and more cost-effective for website owners

Improve online presence of company

Improves Loading speed has a huge positive effect on website SEO's rank, which Google, Yahoo, and Bing consider as important criteria. Also, it is good for the business and e-Commerce sites.

Choose the locally hosted location, most of the search engines prefer it.

Cloud hosting is better BOT protected.

Reliable — Support business and disaster recovery which boosts company’s productivity and performance.

Benefits to Hosting Company

Fewer in-house IT resources required thus reduces expenses.

The increase in productivity as infrastructure accessible from anywhere.

Reduces the business IT cost immensely by outsourcing hardware and software maintenance.

Deployment Models

Four primary models deployed, depending on requirement, each has distinct differences:

Private Cloud — Some particular Organization operates in-house or at the third party place.

Community Cloud — Number of organizations shared infrastructure for the same purpose, work from in-house or third party place. Expenditures distributed in companies this help in saving expenses.

Public Cloud — Cloud service provider offer a consumer to develop and deploy service in the cloud, and infrastructure is available on a commercial basis for less money.

Hybrid Cloud — The combination of private and public clouds or many other clouds to retain data and offer services, it allows data or applications transfer from one cloud to another.

Latest News

‘‘Lurking malice” in cloud hosting services: Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Indiana University Bloomington and the University of California Santa Barbara conducted the study and created a scanning tool “Bars” with features unique to bad repositories. Features included certain types of redirection schemes and ”gatekeeper” elements designed to protect the malware from scanners. National Science Foundation (NSF) is supporting this as a first systematic study of cloud-based malicious activity.